We are beyond psyched to announce a new EP from New Haven-based Mercy Choir, officially out tomorrow on CD and all your favorite streaming platforms. For years hyper-prolific Mercy Choir mastermind Paul Belbusti has been releasing a steady stream of sounds, quietly becoming New Haven's Bob Pollard, both in output and killer melodic hooks.

On More Than Ever, Belbusti has a full band backing him, this time with his current and longest running lineup: Tim Goselin (guitar), Chris Zollo (keys), Brian Slattery (bass), Bruce Crowder (drums), and Loralee Geil (vocals/percussion). And this time around, Belbusti enlisted sound engineer Scott Amore (Mark Mulcahy, Butterflies of Love, Famous Problems) to record the band in New Haven's historic Lyric Hall theater. A wise choice, as it sounds amazing! See the band perform these newer tunes as well as some MC classics tomorrow night at Best Video in Hamden, CT where things get underway at 7:30. Details here. Special guests Little Silver open. Head right over to our webstore, listen to the whole EP, and grip the CD or download. Here's our take on this fine collection of songs...

More than any previous Mercy Choir recording, More Than Ever captures the depth, clarity, and joy of seeing the band perform live in an intimate setting. The songs are arresting and a testament -- not just to Belbusti's continuing evolution as a gifted songwriter, but to the strength of all of its contributors. One hears a cohesive unit playing with the confidence and trust in one another rarely heard from a band that's only been together a couple years. We hear Mercy Choir stretching out and highlighting stylistic aspects of material and taking it to unexpected heights -- percussive and vocal flourishes, incisive guitar leads, subdued, snaking rhythms and perfectly placed drum fills all jump off the palette and onto the canvas when and where they belong. Sometimes the band just lays out and rocks -- happy to perform gems and point (hard) at the parts they like with an open grin. These songs are closed-rolled-eyes good, and even after repeat listens, when the record's over, we're back to the beginning listening to what we thought was something else last time but is even more so...now more than ever.

Since Rivener's new self-titled LP is being co-release by Twin Lakes and Scarsdale, NY-based These Are Not Records, we're having record release shows in New Haven (9/8) and New York (9/20). We're incredibly psyched about how these shows came together, with both bills stacked with artists who've been lighting up music's outer fringes.

We're thrilled beyond words to be teaming up with one of our favorite boutique record labels, These Are Not Records, to bring Rivener's self-titled vinyl debut into the world. All these songs are composed on-the-fly — shape-shifting explorations of no wave, noise, free jazz, and psych, with some elements rooted loosely in the rock tradition — but mostly, they're ineffable expressions of the human spirit.

We are proud to announce a new release from New Haven, CT's No Line North. Dreams of Trees, Part 1 will be available on limited edition CD and digitally on April 28th, with Part 2 due out in early 2018. Dig the Neu-Americana of "Line Drive" below in the first video from this collection. Pre-orders available here.

To celebrate the release of the record locally, we're hosting a celebration this Saturday, March 25th at Lyric Hall in New Haven. It's going to be a blast, with local heroes The Sawtelles and The Proud Flesh on the bill, and proceeds going to a most worth cause -- IRIS (Integrated Refugee and Immigration Services). Though we're still a month out from the official worldwide release, we will have CDs on-hand, available early and exclusively to all who attend. Come hang with us!

Rather than get mired in post-election blues, our friends at UK-based Fox Food Records decided to take action by putting together a compilation of previously unreleased songs by artists and bands from around the globe in order to support some vital civil rights causes. The proceeds from this digital comp will be split evenly and donated to three organizations: Planned Parenthood, American Civil Liberties Union, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. When we learned about this project, we were excited to be part of it by donating a previously unreleased song by Myty Konkeror called "Key of Caesar." It's one of our favorite MK tunes ever recorded and the first featuring Jon on lead vox.

Friends for Equality is an epic compilation of over 40 brilliant songs for which I'm grateful for turning me on to the likes of Good Good Blood, Hand Habits, John Andrews & The Yawns, Henoheno, The Prids, Spartan Jet-Plex, Chris Harford& The Band of Changes, Henry Demos, G Lucas Crane, The Blank Tapes, Fair Mothers, The Sunken Lanes and many, many more. Please follow the link below and dig in!

We are thrilled to announce a new release from Rivener, a three-songer, that sits somewhere between EP and LP, in terms of its length. As they did on last year's Fires in Repose, they continue to improvise shape-shifting explorations of no wave, noise, psych-folk and rock, though this batch of songs finds them in a more contemplative, meditative mood.

Svengali Gaze will be available on limited edition handmade cassette, CD-R (50 each), and digital on October 28th, with both physical formats featuring a live bonus track from last year's Elm City Noise Fest. It can be can pre-ordered on CD/CS/DL here.

Rivener also has a couple shows coming up this fall to support their latest effort...

Tomorrow night at Cafe Nine in New Haven, Twin Lakes Records and friends will celebrate the man, the myth and legend of song, Willie Nelson. On the bill are local treasures from the Greater New Haven area: Bop Tweedy, Frank Critelli, Dave Hogan, Rivener (Paul Belbusti/Michael Kiefer) & Lys Guillorn, Kelly Kancyr, No Line North, Olive Tiger (solo), The Sawtelles, and Xavier Serrano (Kindred Queer) will all be there, playing their interpretations of the classics, deep cuts and hidden gems from his extensive songbook.

We all know the hits, but Willie's songbook goes DEEP. I didn't realize how deep and what an amazing talent he was until Jon from No Line North approached me with the idea of putting this show together. Once I started really listening, I got hooked. Willie just turned 83 last month. We've seen enough tough losses this year, so let's celebrate life and that of a living legend! This is a benefit concert with all proceeds going to the CT Food Bank. The New Haven Independent just published a story about it, and you can check the flyer for details...it's gonna be a hoot!

Myty Konkeror had been on its longest hiatus since it inception until last month when the three of us decided to get together over the holidays for our first jam in over two years. We went into the studio with no plan other than playing what felt good and true and rediscovering the feeling that made playing together so compelling in the first place. We thought things would be more interesting if we used instruments we never incorporated into MK's sound: electric mandolin, banjo, acoustic guitar, and an array of effects pedals. We're really excited about the results, which were three completely improvised jams that represent a new direction for us. So much so, we'll be releasing these songs under a new moniker--More Klementines. And we'll be performing these songs (or ones like 'em) for the first time in front of an audience on March 4th at the Wobbling Roof Revue in New Haven, CT at Never Ending Books. This variety concert series was expertly curated by Mercy Choir/Rivener's Paul Belbusti and Lys Guillorn and will be held every Friday night in March at 8:00, and it's sure to be a blast. Hope to see you there! --Kiefer

Hey rock and rollers! We are thrilled to announce the newest addition to our catalog — a collaborative effort with Dead Language Records — from New Haven-based Mercy Choir. For years hyper-prolific Mercy Choir mastermind Paul Belbusti has been releasing a steady stream of albums, EPs, and singles, quietly becoming the 21st century's Bob Pollard, both for his output and his killer melodic hooks. Sings in the Traditional Rock And Roll Style is a continuation of Paul's oeuvre but with a decidedly stylistic focus. These songs show Belbusti presenting his vision wrapped in various genres, from hushed folk ballads to traditional, sometimes blown-out, rock and roll.

The record is arresting. Sometimes Belbusti and Co. seem to be stretching out or highlighting stylistic aspects of material and taking it to new spots — like he's writing songs to show us places we know but at a different time of day — where we are unrecognized passers-by wishing we had entree. Sometimes they lay out and just rock — happy to perform gems and point (hard) at the parts they like with an open grin. We are old friends listening to music drunk at 2AM enjoying our arm goosebumps together. These songs are closed-rolled-eyes good and universe secret granting, and when the record's over, we're back to the beginning listening to what we thought was something else last time but is now even more so, and waiting to get back to the end song which is more familiar than this newly crazy sounding traditional rock style.

Its official release date is this Friday, October 23rd, the same day as the album's release party at New Haven’s Three Sheets, which will also feature performances by Pete Nolan (Magik Markers) and Lys Guillorn. The first single "Birdwatcher" got some nice ink in Lonesome Noise and IMPOSE, and you can stream some more advance tracks and preorder the album now at our web store.

This weekend is the inaugural Elm City Noise Festival, and we are so grateful to have had the opportunity to help curate Day 2 of the festival at Cafe Nine, which features headliners Oneida from Brooklyn, NY and a stellar bill of other seekers, innovators, and agitators from the New Haven area, like our own Rivener, Black Fluff, Watermelon, and The Mountain Movers' Dan Greene. But Thursday and Saturday night's lineups will be equally sick, featuring bands like Intercourse, Procedure Club, TOYZ, Mr. Heartbreak, Slime Mob, Tick Hive, Parlay Droner, The Forest Room, and members of Florida=Death.

This gig was so much fun! It was so great to see and hang with my good buds, Shovels, all the way from Australia, on the final night of their US tour. I wish they didn't live so far away cuz they're some of my favorite people on the planet. Their set was amazing, and Magik Markers was next level, too...best I've seen from both bands. Plus, they don't come much nicer than those guys. Paul and I had a blast playing so it was good night all around. If you want to listen to/see all three sets, somebody at the show taped it. Just head over here. Oh, and it looks like our next show will be in September at the Elm City Noise Festival with Oneida headlining! --Kiefer

Rivener's debut release Fires in Repose is now available over at our online store. It consists of three shape-shifting explorations of no wave, noise, and psych with elements rooted in the rockist tradition. Rivener stretches, bends, and breathes new meaning into these influences, conjuring stormy, cosmic clouds of sound. It will be available on limited edition cassette and CD-R (50 each), as well as digital. Cassettes and CD's are hand-stickered and can be yours for only 5 bucks!

We are beyond psyched to announce the latest addition to Twin Lakes -- Rivener, a new project started by our label co-founder Michael Kiefer and the hyper-prolific Mercy Choir mastermind Paul Belbusti. According to Kiefer, since his main musical outlet Myty Konkeror had been relatively inactive over the past year, he was itching to do something new and different: "I was looking to do something totally free-form with no rules...something improvisational, sort of in the rockist tradition that could be noisy at times, or calm and subdued, but with less emphasis on the harshness of noise and maybe with more psychedelic or no wave elements. As these ideas were starting to percolate and I started thinking about collaborators, Paul had just put out this amazing album under his Mercy Choir moniker called Gguitar, which was mostly improvised guitar pieces. I knew right away that he was the guy."

Unbeknownst to him, right around the same time, Belbusti had placed a Craigslist ad looking for someone to form an improv duo, citing pretty much all the same influences that were inspiring Kiefer at the time. The stars had aligned, and the two began practicing almost immediately.

Their first release, Fires in Repose, consists of three pieces captured during only their second jam session: shape-shifting explorations of no wave, noise, and psych with elements rooted in the rockist tradition. Rivener stretches, bends, and breathes new meaning into these influences, conjuring stormy, cosmic clouds of sound. It will be available on limited edition cassette and CD-R (50 each), as well as digital, just in time for their next gig, which features a killer lineup including MV & EE, The Mountain Movers, and Spectre Folk (feat. members of Magik Markers, Sonic Youth, and Pavement). Details below.

Nashville’s outer blues duo Ttotals are back, creating dark, brooding twisters of sound, downing power lines with leagues-deep drums and haunting vocals, scorched-earth guitars, and flashes of sampled electronics...a careening vortex performing a muddy dance stomp along the Mississippi Delta as it flings the blues up to the heavens. The band will be hitting the road on November 8th with Psychic Teens in support of their first full-length, Let Everything Come Through, which sees its official release on November 11.

Tour dates:

November 8 - Asheville, NC at the Mothlight #

November 9 - Savannah, GA at Graveface Records #

November 10 - Athens, GA at the Caledonia Lounge #

November 11 - Birmingham, AL at the Nick #

November 12 - Atlanta, GA at 529 #

November 13 - Nashville, TN at the Eastroom #

November 14/15 - Austin, TX at TBA

November 16 - Dallas, TX at Crown & Harp

# = with Psychic Teens

Let Everything Come Through was recorded and mixed by Tate Eskew at Zero Art Studios and mastered by Carl Saff in Chicago. It will be available in both vinyl and digital formats from our website and most online stores on November 11, 2014.

We are thrilled beyond words to announce the release No Line North’s, Farther Out Beyond Today, which hits the streets on CD/DL October 14th and can be pre-ordered now from the band's online store.

No Line North’s broad influences and instrumentation work their way into a uniquely unified sound that runs the spectrum from distorted garage rock to orchestral, quiet folk. Incorporating violin, loop pedals, vibraphones, distorted guitars and a driving rhythm section, NLN cultivates sizzling, psychedelic folk rock rooted in the Americana tradition, with the occasional nod to krautrock.

Mastering Engineer Hans DeKline (Pixies, Snoop Dogg) summed up their new collection nicely: “Love these tunes! This is very original and fondly reminiscent of a Dinosaur Jr., Camper van Beethoven, Built to Spill kind of vibe but they have definitely got their own thing going. So cool!”

The band released their eponymous debut under the moniker Closely Watched Trains on Twin Lakes in October 2009. That first collection received much critical acclaim with The New Haven Register citing it as Connecticut’s best release of the year and The Big Takeover calling it “fresh and inspired.” Since that first release, No Line North has grown to become a powerful and tightknit unit, honing their craft by playing shows and woodshedding while finishing Farther Out Beyond Today. The result is a rocking collection of songs that transcends and bends genres in the best ways possible, sounding familiar yet strikingly unique. The album, which was recorded and produced by the band and friends at various locations, and mixed by NLN bassist John Leonard at SonicBot Productions, sees its official release on October 14, 2014. Get a taste below...

Earlier this year, we announced our partnership with Aquanettas co-founder and P.G. Six bassist/vocalist Debby Schwartz, releasing her solo debut EP Satan, You Brought Me Down, which featured stripped down cut-to-the-soul versions of songs off her forthcoming LP A Garden of My Own. In her flawless finger-picking, we heard Bert Jansch and Nick Drake; in her songwriting, we heard Neil Young; in its terse, bobbing and circular major-minor tides, we heard Pentangle; in her voice, we heard diamonds and rust. We were addled and propelled, and it kept getting better with each listen. To our ears, it was an instant addition to the canon of American hardscrabble songbook. Aside from being incredible songs, they benefit from the expert guidance of sound engineer/producer Ivan Julian, who is also known as a founding member/guitarist of the seminal punk band Richard Hell and the Voidoids, at his N.Y. Hed Recording Studios.

A Garden of My Own hits the streets on both CD and vinyl September 23rd and can be pre-ordered here. Stream "London", the first single off the new album, below.

Nashville's Ttotals will be hitting the road once again for a string of dates from Texas up through New York, this time with their friends from Mexico, Lorelle Meets the Obsolete. Brian and Marty have been playing shows in and around their home town pretty steadily over the past few months while finishing up a new batch of songs in the studio. Now they're super psyched to try them out in front of some new crowds. The rough mixes of these new outer blues jams sound amazing, so be sure to catch them if they come to a city near you...